Is Windows 10 On Arm a viable platform for advanced mobile device users?

Microsoft made a bold statement when it first launched Surface Pro X in November 2019. Although the company had been offering some Windows in low-power Arm-based processors for many years, if you consider Surface RT, Windows Phone, or even Windows Mobile, Surface Pro X marked the first time that Microsoft released a premium Surface-brand device with an Arm-based processor. (No, I do not consider the Surface or Surface 2 with Windows RT “premium”).

Surface Pro X is powered by a custom Microsoft SQ1 SoC (system on a chip), developed in collaboration with Qualcomm. The SQ1 is essentially a Snapdragon 8cx tuned to Microsoft’s desired frequencies and power envelope. It is an 8-core processor with an integrated artificial intelligence engine that operates at frequencies up to 3GHz. The SQ1 also has an integrated GPU that offers up to 2 Teraflops of computing performance. There are versions of the Surface Pro X with 8 or 16 GB of RAM (with various amounts of storage) and LTE wireless connectivity is also an option.

Altogether, looking at its specs and marketing materials, the 1.7-pound Surface Pro X appears to be a highly capable, ultraportable PC, with a beautiful touchscreen, attractive design language, and the ability to run on 13-hour battery life with use. typical. Microsoft says this about the device, “Built for first-time web experiences, the Surface Pro X is ultrathin and always connected, combining ultra-fast LTE with 2-in-1 versatility and an ultrathin 13 “edge-to-edge” touchscreen.

So what is the trick?

All of this sounds good and good – everyone looking for a mobile PC wants a slim, lightweight, always-on-line system that offers excellent battery life. However, since the Surface Pro X is powered by an Arm-based processor, it cannot run x86 applications natively, for example, those developed for traditional Intel / AMD processors. However, the Windows 10 operating system, along with all the basic utilities, tools, and applications that come with the operating system, run natively on the Arm processor. And there are a number of native applications available through the Windows Store, including the Chromium-based version of Microsoft’s Edge browser or Office 365. However, running non-native x86 applications requires the use of emulation, which can introduce incompatibilities. and performance issues. And that’s for 32-bit x86 applications only; At this time, Windows on Arm and Surface Pro X cannot run 64-bit x86 applications. Microsoft has suggested that 64-bit emulation was in progress, but there is no official word on when (or if) it will be available. Microsoft would prefer developers to compile their code for the native Arm64 operation, but recent leaks and rumors suggest 64-bit x86 emulation is coming sometime.

It may sound like Windows RT again, but let me assure you that things are very different this time. When you turn on Surface Pro X for the first time and start using tools around the system, it is Windows 10. Without checking Device Manager or System Info, you would never know that the machine was not running an x86 processor at first glance. However, start trying to install your applications and problems may arise.

Now that Surface Pro X has been around for a few months and Microsoft has had a chance to fix a few issues, I thought I’d give the system a try and see if it would be possible to replace my traditional laptop. with the Surface Pro X.

My use case

Before getting to the bottom line, I should explain my typical mobile use case. I do the vast majority of my work on a powerful desktop system. I have been a PC enthusiast for years and have built every desktop PC I have used for over 20 years. I went from a Commodore 64, to an HP Vectra XT class, to building my own systems. I am also a gamer, I want to be a photographer and test junkie, so a powerful PC is a must. I also travel quite a bit (or at least used to), and I need a laptop that can handle multitasking well. Usually while on the go, it’s not uncommon for me to work in Word, Photoshop, Outlook, and an online content management system, as I surf the web to check details and chat with colleagues. My preferred form factor is a 13 “tire – the Dell XPS 13 is my machine of choice right now.

On my desktop system, I keep an updated folder with my most used “must have” applications. It currently consists of installers for Adobe’s CS6 Master Collection (I refuse to move to Adobe’s current subscription model, while CS6 still handles what I need), some basic system maintenance and compression utilities, browsers, chat apps, and editors. specialized image and video. A handful of these I don’t normally use on my laptop. When I travel, I rarely have to edit videos on my own and I will shoot JPG (instead of RAW) to simplify the image editing process. So, from the list of applications that I have prepared, these are the ones that I usually have installed on my laptop, to imitate my desktop settings …

• Adobe CS6 Master Collection (of which I use Photoshop 99% of the time)
• Better File Rename 6 (batch file renaming)
• CCleaner (for basic system maintenance)
• EditPadLite (an excellent text and simple code editor)
• FileZilla (FTP client)
• Light Image Resizer (batch image resizer)
• PeaZip (file compression / decompression)
• Skype
• Trillian (multi-IM client)
• WinRAR (archive compression / decompression)

From the beginning, I knew that many of these would not work because I use the 64-bit installer versions of these applications: FileZilla, PeaZip, and WinRAR. So I took the 32-bit installers for those apps before trying Surface Pro X. Adobe Master Collection includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of some apps and I wasn’t quite sure how that would behave, but I thought I would give it a try. I should also note that Microsoft Office was pre-installed on the machine.

My Surface Pro X experiment

Before making the switch to Surface Pro X, I did some prep work. The system has been fully updated through Windows Update, to ensure the latest patches, drivers, compatibility updates, etc. are applied. I also installed Arm’s native version of the Chromium-based Edge browser. There is no native Google Chrome version available for Windows on Arm (although Firefox is available) and, somewhat surprisingly, I have found that Edge behaves quite well, so it would be my usual browser on Surface Pro X. If it ran on a compatibility problem of some kind with Edge, I would try Firefox.

To get the process going, I copied my installers to a USB flash drive, plugged it into the Surface Pro X, and started installing my apps. Everything installed without problems. I wasn’t expecting a smooth transition at first, but Surface Pro X behaved like any other system when setting it up.

However, when it came to using my apps, there were a few problems. Simpler 32-bit x86 applications worked fine, but occasionally there would be lags or delays in doing things (like navigating through menus) that would normally be snapshots on my laptop. This was not a big problem, because applications like Better File Rename, FileZilla or EditPad are not particularly demanding. Of course, I would prefer that they behave identically to my desktop or XPS 13, but waiting a moment or two here and there did not affect their usability.

However, Photoshop was a different story. I had a problem with the fact that it did not start correctly, or took so long to start and open, that I ended up trying to open it several times. It was also occasionally slower than expected, to the point where it ended up clicking wrong menu items, buttons, and so on. Since I don’t do anything particularly complex with Photoshop when I travel, I decided to try the native and hacked version of Photoshop Express and it was perfectly useful. I also tried the free GIMP image editor, which also worked flawlessly.

I used the machine for a few weeks and was pleasantly surprised at how well my little experiment went. I didn’t think it was possible for me to reliably use a Windows device in Arm knowing its limitations, but that was not the case. I had to make a few minor concessions and adapt accordingly, but in fact it would be possible for me to switch to the Surface Pro X as my primary device when on the road.

Surface Pro X Pros and Cons

Although my experience was technically successful, there are additional things to consider. While I found acceptable performance and the machine usable, the Surface Pro X’s performance is nowhere near what a traditional x86 laptop can offer. For example, in the browser-based Speedometer 2.0 benchmark, Surface Pro X scores 61.4. In the same test, my Dell XPS 13 with a Core i7-8550U has scores 96.2. The Basemark Web 3.0 benchmark tells a similar story. In that test, Surface Pro X scores 462.03 to the XPS 13 664.07. And before I say the comparison to a Core i7 is unfair, my exact XPS 13 setup is available from Amazon for $ 1,149, which is almost the same price as an 8GB Surface Pro X, if you consider the price of the touch cover. .

On the other hand, the Surface Pro X is completely silent (because it has no fans) and the battery life is pretty good. Microsoft claims 13 hours of typical use, but it can go much longer if you are not in front of the machine with the screen constantly on. A full day of work shouldn’t be a problem for the vast majority of you. And if your use case doesn’t involve taxing apps and the machine goes to sleep from time to time, two business days is a different possibility.

Unrelated to the platform, Microsoft also made some unfortunate decisions in terms of IO connectivity. Although two USB-C ports are a useful setup, it would have been nice to see the inclusion of a microSDXC card reader / slot and perhaps a full-size USB-A port, so there would be no need to use dongles to use legacy USB drives, devices etc. For my tastes, a traditional tire is also more comfortable to use on the road, especially in terms of “lapability”. The kickstand and detachable keyboard / cover are too loose for me.

Anyway, if you understand what Surface Pro X is all about and the prospect of a quiet, slim and lightweight convertible PC with a solid battery is interesting, it’s worth checking out. You may be surprised by what can do.